What is ESP8266?

The ESP8266 series, or family, of Wi-Fi chips is produced by Espressif Systems, a fabless semiconductor company operating out of Shanghai, China. The ESP8266 series presently includes the ESP8266EX and ESP8285 chips.

ESP8266 NodeMCU

NodeMCU is an open source IoT platform. It includes firmware which runs on the low cost Wi-Fi enabled ESP8266 Wi-Fi SoC from Espressif Systems, and hardware which is based on the ESP-12 module. It has GPIO, SPI, I2C, ADC, PWM AND UART pins.

OTA Programming

OTA Programming (Over the Air) is a process which allows devices to upgrade their firmware or software wirelessly without any physical access. It uses wireless technology like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS or 4G/3G rather than wired serial communication. OTA is used to reprogram the node devices etc. OTA updates are generally sent for updating the software, resolving the bugs, adding some features etc. Here in this tutorial, we will send OTA update to ESP8266 NodeMCU to blink an LED.

Preparing NodeMCU to receive OTA Update Wirelessly

First connect the NodeMCU ESP8266 with the PC using micro USB cable. Then, to upload the firmware using OTA, we need to upload the sketch serially using micro USB to generate the ESP IP address. This is the necessary step to upload the firmware wirelessly next time. Select the serial port to which cable is attached from Tools -> Port.

ESP8266 comes with libraries and examples which can be directly accessed from Arduino IDE. Open Arduino IDE and then Open BasicOTA example.

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